Until the End
by offtofeelthings
Summary: My entries for Zutara Week 2014. Modern day Zombie Apocalypse. Zuko and Katara have lost more than they could ever imagine, and now they are fighting for their survival against humans that are already dead.
1. Melancholy

**A/N: ZUTARA WEEK! YAY.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything ATLA**

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><p><strong>Melancholy<strong>

The group seemed to have this uncanny ability to escape immediate danger unscathed. Afterwards they liked to tell each other how lucky they were to remind themselves how unfortunate it had been for others.

On one particularly close encounter Sokka had pulled out a bottle of his favorite drink, Cactus Juice, and claimed that surviving an attack from a zombie horde was something to celebrate. To her surprise Zuko was the first one to take a gulp from the glass bottle, followed nearly immediately by Toph. When the bottle had reached Katara in their small huddle around the fire it was already half empty. She had looked at it before passing it on to Aang who always found his spot beside her.

"Are you not going to drink any, Katara?" She knew when she looked at him that if she didn't drink, he wouldn't drink. She gave him a small smile.

"I'm tired."

Zuko had known as he took another swig that what she needed was more than just a night of sleep.

But Zuko had always understood things about Katara that Aang never would.

This never stopped the biting jealousy as she soothed _him_ after nightmares, or hugged _him_ after a long day.

_He was just a boy._

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><p>The one time they weren't lucky they had been <em>horribly unlucky<em>.

It had been months later, summer time. They had finally found two working cars and were on their way to the ocean (Katara had hope for the sea) when they had stopped at a shopping mall. There were so many holes in their clothes that the immodesty was becoming uncomfortable.

Zuko, Katara, and Aang had driven to one side of the mall while Sokka, Suki, and Toph had stayed at the other. Katara had said it would be most efficient to start on opposite sides and work their way to the middle.

The first store Katara stepped into was indeed, a clothing store. The Gap.

The boy's had meant business and immediately walked over to the men's clothing.

Katara's fingers dragged and danced across the soft fabrics of the blouses and skirts. When her hands reached a smooth blue dress she stopped. It was simple, short with an empire waistline.

It was similar to the dress she had bought to wear to her graduation. The "disease" spread before she got the chance to even take the tag off.

That was a year ago.

"I'm going to go to the next store." Aang's voice cut through the air and she dropped the fabric she hadn't realized she'd had clenched between her fingers. Her eyes fell to her blood stained converse.

"Okay. I'll be there in a second."

She reluctantly moved on and absent mindedly grabbed a pair of baggy shorts and a fitted t-shirt.

She was slipping quickly out of her sweatshirt and jeans when she first noticed the noise. It was an unforgettable, _unmistakable _sound. Moaning and dragging. Panic erupted in her bones as she threw on the t-shirt and jumped into the shorts.

"Katara!" Zuko's voice was hardly above a whisper and before she knew it he was stepping out from behind a rack of jeans. When he reached her he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the glass windows of the store.

"We have to find Aang, Zuko!" The noises had gotten loud to a point where Katara couldn't hear Zuko's voice. He gestured for the large doors twenty feet away that lead outside, and she finally noticed how many zombies had showed up without her knowing. It was clear when they first came in. Zuko's voice was right by her ear as he talked just loud enough for her to hear.

"I'll get Aang!" Anger surfaced as she considered the idea of running while Zuko and Aang fought.

"No! We go together!"

Zuko shook his head at her stubborn antics, but otherwise didn't protest. When he let go of her hand to pull out his dao swords she knew the plan without having to ask.

He clears a path. She gets to Aang.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye than immediately sprang into action as the Zombies began to notice them. As Zuko drew the attention from her, Katara made a run for the store about thirty feet away. She jumped over a couple of crawlers and ducked under swinging arms. Despite the danger every time she felt her muscles strain a shot of adrenaline pushed through her blood, and gave her a strange sense of power.

Entering the shoe store she heard a few bangs in the back behind the tall isles.

It was dark and after her eyes adjusted all she could see were shadows. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of silver and she turned to find a metal rod used to reach things on higher shelves. Katara looked around before quietly reaching for it and turning back towards the darkness.

"Aang?" When she received no answer, she cursed under her breath. She tried again. "Aang, are you back there?" Her steps were short and measured as she walked down the aisle while checking her surroundings periodically. She heard what sounded like growling and continuous clanking and banging. As she reached the edge of the aisle the noises increased until she was sure there was at least two or three of them. Her hands tightened on the metal rod until she was holding it like a baseball bat and her tan knuckles had paled considerably. Turning the corner she immediately ran into a zombie and swung with as much power as she could muster. Blood spattered one of her cheeks and she felt the head crack after she swung again. A triumphant smile pulled at the corner of her lips as the monster collapsed at her feet.

In front of her was a shadowed figure on the ground. A crawler.

Katara lifted the rod above her head and swung down at what looked like the head. It slumped where it was on the ground and she kicked it until it rolled over. Under it was another body. Katara's pupil's dilated as she stared at the figure of the body in the shadows. It wasn't moving.

"Aang?" His name came out as a puff of air as she dropped to her knees, and the metal rod fell to the ground beside her. Her fingers shook as they reached out and fell against the head of the body. A distinctly _bald_ head. "_Aang!_" His head was cold and when she reached down to feel for his pulse her hand met _blood_ and _tendon_.

She knew it then. In the _very recesses of her brain_ she knew it, but when she reached forward and cradled the seventeen year old boy's body against her chest she wished for once that she was blissfully ignorant.

It wasn't until her body started shaking with sobs and her throat was dry from screaming that Zuko came to take her away. He had to take Aang's body from her arms to get her to listen to him. Her screams continued until he grabbed her blood soaked wrists and shook her until she looked at his golden eyes reflecting in the little light left in the mall.

"Listen to me, Katara! Aang's gone. We have to go." He watched as her hair flung back and forth in her frantic denial.

"He_ needed_ me, Zuko." Her breaths were shallow and her voice was high-pitched as she hiccuped between words.

"I _need_ you!" Zuko said it with absolute desperation in his voice. There was a moan from the front of the store, and he glanced behind him before he looked back at the girl who was falling apart in his hands; he put his calloused palms on her cheeks. "If we don't go now, we are never going to make it out alive. Katara. I _need _you alive." His hands dropped to her shoulders after pulling through her disheveled hair. After a couple long seconds he felt her nod and he immediately sprung to action.

He pulled her up with him and unsheathed one of his swords. When she grabbed one of his hands he didn't let go until they had made it through the horde and out the doors into the moonlight.

The zombies had followed them to the car and before Zuko could put the key in the ignition they were on the car and throwing their body weight at the windows and doors. Katara was too busy scrubbing the guilt and pain (_blood_) from her hands to notice that every other parking lot in the mall was empty, and Zuko and herself were so utterly alone.

They had been so_ horribly _unlucky.

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><p><strong>AN: Tomorrow's installment will be much more Zutara because yeah **


	2. Jubilant

**A/N: A day late. I know I suck.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own ATLA.**

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><p><strong>Jubilant<strong>

Katara and Zuko had decided it would be best to keep to the plan and travel south. It gave them hope and comfort to know that they had a chance of finding the others. However after a couple of months of driving for a day and stopping for a week or two when they found somewhere safe, their car completely broke down.

...

"What do you mean, you don't know how to fix it?" Katara's arms were crossed over her chest as she watched Zuko bend over the frame of the car to look for the problem. He was grumbling and shaking his head as she watched him poke the parts of the car with his pale fingers.

"Um. Well. I've never actually had to fix a car before." Katara rolled her eyes as she watched him stand up and rub the back of his neck.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Zuko glared at her under his mop of black hair before sighing and looking back at the smoking engine. A feeling of inadequacy came over him as he looked around the empty overgrown road for any other form of transportation.

"Maybe because you always like to expect the absolute _worst _from me. Sometimes you make me wonder if you even trust me." Katara's eyes widened in mild surprise at the frustration in his voice and words. The past two months he'd been careful around her, hardly talking, only comforting her when she woke up screaming for her brother. Or _Aang_.

"I don't mean to." When he looked up from the ground she had turned her back to him. He opened his mouth to assure her that he had forgiven her. That he would _always_ forgive her, but she hardly let him say anything as her arm's dropped, and she shivered in her shorts and cotton shirt. The dark burgundy color of her shirt had faded with the amount of times she's had to stop and scrub at drying blood. "Maybe you should start trusting _me_."

She quickly turned back around and opened the car door. She pulled out their large pack and threw it over her shoulder. She slammed the door, and started in the direction they had been driving. After a couple of moments of brooding cerulean eyes, Zuko was beside her starting to pull the pack from her shoulders to his own.

It was a silent apology hanging in the chilly air between them.

Katara stopped as he moved her arm slightly to slip the strap off and then do the same with her other arm. He looked at her out of the corner of his good eye as he threw the pack over his shoulder. When she released an exhausted breath and reached for his long calloused fingers with her own, the message was clear.

She had forgiven him. She would_ always_ forgive him.

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><p>Hours after the sun had set they found an empty (safe) apartment building, and chose an apartment on the fourth floor. (They were lucky to find it unlocked.)<p>

To Katara's excitement, right inside the door of the apartment were two long boards. Zuko had simply raised an eyebrow as she picked one up and hugged it to her chest like a long-lost friend, and her eyes were squeezed so tightly shut he could've sworn she was in pain. When for the first time in months a full-blown grin spread across her tanned face, Zuko realized how much he loved her.

When the idea of love bloomed in his chest a warmth spread through his body and to his cheeks. It was like an inner fire had finally set to the kindling that was their careful relationship. It was his heart and his soul, and he decided with stubborn finality that it was _burning_ for her. In a burst of rare happiness he let out a sharp breath and grabbed her shoulders in his large hands.

"My heart burns for you, Katara!"

After a second of widening eyes and blushing cheeks (from both of them), Katara flung backwards out of his arms only to break into a ceremoniously loud fit of laughter. Zuko's entire face was as red as a tomato as he hit himself on his forehead repeatedly. Cursing his lack of luck and unforgivingly broken filter.

"Stop laughing at me!" Zuko's hands clenched into fists. If it was for any other reason, Zuko would have been savoring the sound of her laughter, but now as he watched her fall to the ground and clutch her stomach with her scarred fingers, he grew upset.

"My heart.." Her voice was low in an insulting imitation of his voice as she paused between words to suck in a gulp of air and release hearty laughs. "Burns for you!" The more she laughed the more frustrated Zuko got until finally he reached down and pulled the girl up by her waist so that she was standing in front of him. Her laughs resolved to nervous fits of giggles as she stared at him under her eyelashes. His hands moved from her waist to hold her wrists in front of him.

"I was trying to say I love you." His voice came out as an angry growl and he knew he was glaring at her under his hair. Katara flinched at his voice, but when the meaning behind the words registered he saw it in her eyes. The silence as he released one of her wrists to touch her blushing cheek was excruciating. "I know you don't love me, and I am bad at… feelings in general, but, Katara, I promise you I will always protect you. I _need _you, like I said when we lost Aang. I meant it, Katara. I_ meant_ it." His voice had turned frustratingly soft as more words began to tumble out of his mouth without permission. "I love you. I love you so much it hurts, and until you love me back I will keep saying it. I know that…"

"I love you, too." Her outburst surprised them both as Zuko's hand began to drop from her face. Her's came to meet it as she held it close to the warmth in her cheek. Tears welled in her eyes, but when she smiled he knew she was alright. That they were both more than alright. When the salty tears fell on his hand hope fled into his bones at the idea of _living _with Katara. "I love you." Her voice was shaking as she repeated it over and over and over until the words morphed in their ears to sound like something completely different. Zuko let go of her other wrist to cup her face in both his hands and then in the confidence that the past few moments gave him he began to tenderly kiss the tears on her face. He kissed the corner of her mouth with mild hesitance before she reached for the back of his neck and pulled him back down to her.

After a few seconds Katara concluded that Zuko was indeed, a better kisser than Aang.

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><p>That night when they lay wrapped in each other's arms under a comforter Katara had found in the closet, they made reckless promises to each other and said I love you enough to make up for all the times that they hadn't in the past.<p>

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><p><strong>AN: Drop a review if it so pleases you.**


	3. Motorcycle

**DISCLAIMER- I do not own ATLA**

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><p><strong>Motorcycle<strong>

Katara and Zuko were racing their long boards down a particularly long hill when he first heard it. The distant grumbling of vehicles making their way towards them on the road. Katara continued to speed down the road exclaiming about the unfairness of it all.

"It's because you weigh more!" Her voice was faint over the air rushing past them and through their hair.

"There is someone behind us, Katara!" He watched as her long brown curls flew behind her and she watched with a keen eye as the road started to narrow and even in front of them. Her eyes turned to him for less then a second before she was lowering her stance on the board and leaning with the bend in the road. Followed very closely by Zuko who had grown nervous with the growing noise of what he could now safely assume were motorcycles. Katara either couldn't hear him, or wasn't listening. When the ground evened out completely and the wind that had been drowning out most the noise ceased to block the noise of the motorcycles in Katara's ears, she turned her board and stopped rolling. Zuko did the same a few feet in front of her, and soon the motorcycles turned the corner and slowed when they saw spotted Katara and Zuko. Who had moved so that they were standing beside each other. Zuko's hand reached forward so that it rested against the small of her back as what seemed to be six men. A couple seemed to be young teenagers.

The one in the front stopped behind them and switched off his motorcycle. He hopped off the vehicle and Katara and Zuko turned so that their back wouldn't be to anyone.

Zuko's hand that was on her back, bunched in the fabric of her shirt to pull her closer to him. While Zuko glared at what appeared to be the leader Katara looked warily at the others surrounding them as they sat on their bikes. None of which were wearing helmets.

"Well, well, well." Katara's face turned towards the too smooth voice and watched as he moved to stand in front of them. He was almost as tall as Zuko, who towered over her, and his hair was brown and stuck out in all directions. He looked confident as he chewed on what looked to be a piece of wheat and crossed his arms to look at them through squinted eyes. "Look who we have here." The man tilted his head to the side as his smirk grew. His eyes slid over to Katara and she watched as he looked her up and down. Zuko took a step forward so that the attention shifted to him.

"Who are you?" Zuko's voice was low and gravelly as his fist loosed on her shirt until his palm was moving in circles on her back. When the leader's eyes moved to watch the movement, Zuko moved his hand so that his arm was wrapped around her waist and he was holding her close to him.

"The name's Jet." Jet's smirk faded into a frown as he watched Katara's body weight shift toward's Zuko. "These are my boys." Katara smiled in an attempt to be relatively friendly. She held her hand out for Jet to shake.

"I'm Katara."

"Extremely pleased to meet you, Katara." When Jet reached forward and kissed the back of her hand instead of taking it in a firm handshake, a rosy blush spread across her cheeks. Jet's calloused fingers lingered where they gently held her hand in place. She pulled away quickly when Zuko cleared his throat and pulled her even closer to him than they had been before.

"I'm Zuko."

As Katara conversed with him and introduced herself to all the boys on the motorcycles, Zuko refused to leave her side. It made him uncomfortable how all the men's eyes lingered on her every movement. In the past she had amazed him with her uncanny ability to make people happy. Now he grew frustrated as he watched Katara begin a one-sided conversation with a guy Jet proclaimed was a mute who had never so much as smiled at a joke, but then Katara moved to push her hair behind her shoulder and flash the guy her award-winning grin. Within seconds he was reaching out to shake her hand as the corner of his lips twitched into the faintest of smiles. Nearly all of these men were putty in her hands as she talked to them like they were transfers in her high school and not dangerous looking men they had met in the middle of a road soon to be overrun by dead people looking for humans as their next meal.

The entire situation made Zuko wonder how long it had been since this _motorcycle gang _had seen an actual girl.

Zuko was too busy glaring at the mute guy, Longshot, to realize that Katara had struck a deal. It wasn't until all the boy's were loading up on their bikes that Zuko looked down at the girl next to him to find her grinning. He leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"What's happening?" Katara's hand squeezed his before she let go to pick up the board and pack that lay forgotten on the road.

"I just got us supper and somewhere to stay for the night." Zuko rolled his eyes before picking up his board and taking the pack from her, laying it over his dao swords on his shoulders.

"How do you know we can trust them?" His voice was quiet as Katara looked at the group of men before her.

"Don't trust them. Trust _me_."

Zuko's frustration only seemed to double as she went to sit on the back of Jet's motorcycle and gestured for Zuko to pick a bike. He took a blow to his pride as he moved to sit on the back of a teenager's bike. Zuko was almost positive he was a she. Then "it" turned around to glare at him before revving the engine, and Zuko was positive that she was a girl.

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><p>Zuko was surprised to find them stop in a shed to keep the motorcycles. Then instead of going into the house they turned in the opposite direction and moved into the forest. Zuko walked closely behind Katara as his blood began to boil at the easy conversation passing between her and Jet. Jet was obviously interested in Katara, and she was too lost in her kindness and trusting nature to realize it.<p>

Five minutes into the trek through to forest, Jet stopped and silenced everyone with a finger over his mouth. As he placed his hands over his mouth he made a series of noises similar to a birds before Zuko thought to look up at the heavily wooded sky. He could barely make out wooden floors and bridges between trees before he realized, they were staying in _tree houses_. Rope ladders flew from the trees and hit the ground surrounding them. Jet waved for them to climb and Katara turned to Zuko to raise an eyebrow, in a gesture thats meaning came across clearly. _I told you so._

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><p>That evening, after the sun set and Jet had given them fruit and tough meat, Katara and Zuko lay in sleeping bags beside each other under the stars. The other men (including the one Zuko discovered to be a girl) had gone across bridges to different small wooden tree houses.<p>

Katara lay on her side watching Zuko who throughout the night had purposely avoided her eyes. His lids covered his eyes as he tried to feign sleep as he lay on his back.

"Zuko?" Her voice was tender as she scooted her sleeping bag closer to him. When he didn't respond to her she pulled her hand out from the warmth of the sleeping bag to poke his bare bicep. Since she could remember he took his shirt off to sleep. She never understood how he could bare the chill of the night air; she was cold in her simple t-shirt and shorts. She let out a puff of air as he ignored her completely. She moved even closer so that he could feel her breath against his unscathed cheek as he lay on his back. "Zuko?" She reached forward to poke him again, but his arm shot out and he wrapped his hand around hers.

"I'm trying to sleep, Katara." He turned so that he was laying on his side facing her. He didn't let go of her hand, but instead turned it so that their fingers were intertwined. Their faces were inches away and the edges of their sleeping bags overlapping.

"You're not mad at me?" Her voice was tired as he noticed sleep entering her eyes.

"No, not you." She squeezed his hand in hers before her eyes fluttered closed, and she fell asleep beside him.

—

That next morning Zuko woke her up before dawn to take her back to the shed. They had taken the sleeping bags and another pack. They sprinted through the forest when they found a hoard of zombies below the trees.

The poor gang had made it all too easy for them to steal one of their motorcycles, and when the sun finally rose they were miles away from the group of weird men and a single girl.


	4. Cobalt Blue

**A/N: Sorry about the shortness of it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA.**

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><p><strong>Cobalt Blue<strong>

Laying on her back in the sand Katara decides for the first time in her life that she has a favorite color. As she thinks about it she realizes it was her favorite all along.

After being alone with Zuko for a few months she developed the habit of speaking without a filter. She would say whatever was on her mind to make up for the amount of brooding he did. That's what their relationship was, hours of apology filled I love you's following brash fights and thoughtless insults.

"Zuko."

They'd made it to the beach in a day with the motorcycle.

"I think my favorite color is blue."

The sky was deep and dark as dusk approached.

"I've decided just now." She heard shuffling beside her as Zuko shifted through the sand from where he was standing by the water. The crashing of the ocean was rhythmic as she listened for Zuko's response.

"Hasn't it always been blue?" He fell to the ground next to her and dug his toes under the sand. They'd both taken the liberty of removing their shoes. Katara sat up. Her hair had been in a braid when they stopped, but once they got to the ocean and she jumped in the water she was pulling it down. She had stood ankle-deep until her legs were numb to the lapping and crashing; she mesmerized by the ceaseless blue.

"I suppose so." Zuko looked at her as she drew her legs up to her chest.

"I think that's mine as well." Katara glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

"No it isn't." She snorted when he shook his head at her. When he let out a laugh she swiveled her entire body to look at him. Her expression turned from mocking laughter to completely serious. "I thought it was red." Zuko wrinkled his nose as he turned his body so that they were facing each other.

"It is definitely blue."

"You always used to wear red, and you had those dark red shoes that you wore all the time. You had a red back pack. Whenever you got to pick a color, you picked red!" Zuko laughed before reaching for her hand that was flying through the air with each new exclamation.

"Well, now I pick blue." A blush rose to her cheeks as she realized what he'd meant by his words. Her voice was flustered as she glanced at her trapped hand.

"Blue?"

"Always blue."

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><p><strong>AN: I know this chapter is really short.**

** I just wanted to keep it short and sweet because this prompt was leaving me feeling really uninspired... Not that it was a bad prompt I just had a day that made me feel particularly useless. I'm sorry, loves.**


	5. Unrequited

**A/N: Truth of the matter is my life has gone awry.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA.**

**Unrequited**

The truth of the life they were leading was that happiness was always temporary. The places they were staying were always left abandoned. And Katara's fragile minimal amount of hope for finding her family was fading.  
>The longer they traveled along the coast without a trace, the more foolish she began to think herself for <em>ever<em> thinking she could find them. Her and Sokka had lost their father a couple of months after the beginning, but the loss of Sokka was still relatively recent. Sometimes the comfort and warmth of Zuko's arms was still not enough to fight away the midnight terrors.  
>She didn't wake up screaming anymore; she woke up gasping for air. She would sit up and pace the ground, and at first Zuko had been able to coax her back to laying down.<br>_Then one day she pushed him away_.  
>In her dream (<em>nightmare<em>) they were in a different world. Her fingers were resting on smooth silky fabric; she was in a long dress. The entire gang was there and dressed strangely. Sokka's hair was in a pony tail and he was drawing with black ink beside Suki. Zuko was next to the girl from their school, Mai, as they whispered in each other's ear. Katara realized you could still feel jealousy in dreams. Toph was having tea with Zuko's uncle. Ignoring the envy, an overwhelming sense of content washed over her as she watched her friends just be with each other.  
>A soft, small hand pulled at her fingers and she gasped when she saw him. He had blue arrow tattoos running all over his body; he was dressed as a monk would and he looked so young. He must have been twelve at the time, and as Katara glanced around her she realized that they were all so much younger than she had originally thought. Then their faces started decaying before her eyes and their smiles morphed into growls as teeth began to rot and skin began to peel. She tried to pull from Aang to run, but his grip was surprisingly strong. He pulled her to him and before she could register what was happening his teeth were biting and pulling at the skin in her arm. Terror and pain swept over her as all of her friends, including Zuko, surrounded her, and the green silk of her dress began to stain red as they began to <em>feed<em> on her.  
>When she woke up she flew out of the sleeping bag and ran across the room of the abandoned beach house. Her fingernails dug into her forehead as images of her friends eating her flew through her head. Zuko stood up quickly at the noise of strangled breaths and the occasional short panicked scream that echoed through the cream painted room.<br>"Katara?" Her back was to him, and her hair fell to her waist. The curls trembled along with the rest of her body. He reached for her shoulder and was surprised when she spun around and looked at him with a torrential storm in her eyes.  
>"No." Hurt washed over Zuko's features at the single word, but she hardly seemed to notice. When he tried to reach for her again she placed her fingers on his bare chest and pushed him. He stumbled, but didn't fall.<br>"Katara I'm not going to hurt you." He watched as her body folded in on herself and her knees hit the wooden floor. Her torso fell until it rested against her leg and her fingers threaded through her hair until her nails dug into her scalp. Her face was to the ground and he watched as she curled into a fetal position and silence resounded through the room.  
>Then, gradually, sobs began to escape from her mouth as thoughts of Aang's unrequited love surfaced in her deranged mind.<br>_Why couldn't she have loved him the way he deserved?_  
>Then Zuko's hand pushed away her hair and he was rubbing circles on her back to try to soothe away her guilt.<br>"I just… want them back." Her voice was muffled and her words vague, but Zuko didn't have to ask to know who she was talking about.  
>"I want them back too."<br>Ten minutes later, when she finally allowed him to pull her into his arms, Zuko began to cry as well as memories of Jasmine tea and hours of philosophical advice passed through his mind.  
>They'd both lost their family after all.<p>

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><p><strong>AN: I feel like I overuse italics?**


	6. Socks

**A/N: I like this chapter best. Most definitely.**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ATLA**

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><p><strong>Socks<strong>

Katara has no idea how he remembers, or how he had even been able to keep track of the days. She suspected that he didn't actually know. It was probably a well-educated guess. But when Zuko woke her up before the sun had risen to pull her onto the roof of the small residential home with him, fatigue was too heavy on her bones for her to care.

Sure, when the first rays of light passed over the glittering water she was silenced by the beauty, but that didn't mean she was remotely happy to have only gotten a few hours of sleep. When she turned to Zuko to say as much she was silenced by a pair of socks dangling in front of her face.

"Happy Birthday, Katara." Her eyes widened and she couldn't snatch them from his hands quick enough.

"Socks!" A faint smile spread across his face as he watched her frantically unlace the top of her hightop converse. She began to pull on them, but her hands kept slipping.

"Here." She was hardly surprised when Zuko gingerly took her foot from her own lap and pulled the shoe off in one try. She reached for her other foot, but he got there first. He unlaced and pulled the shoe off calmly and a lot faster than she would have taken. The socks she was currently wearing were old and mismatched. They both had holes on her heel and the balls of her feet. When she pulled them off she balled them up and threw them over the side of the roof. Her grin was infectious as she picked up her new (still packaged) blue socks that came up just above her ankles and were covered in starfish and beach umbrellas. The feeling of the new clean fabric on the soft part of her feet was more than she could've ever asked for, for her birthday. Socks were something they often forgot to grab when they went on supply runs. Katara wiggled her toes in her socks, and when she was satisfied she threw her arms around Zuko's neck. Her entire body weight rested on him as a fell backwards, laughter following him the whole way. His chin was resting on the top of her head as her nose nestled into the base of his throat and her lips pressed gentle kisses just above his heart. The warmth and love that she emanated seeped into his skin and filled his body from head to toe; the nerves and almost pain that came with her set in at the pit of his stomach.

"Thank you one-hundred times over, Zuko." The hem of her t-shirt had ridden up as she fell and Zuko's fingers set into a rhythmic movement at the small of her bare back.

"You're welcome one-hundred times over."

Then Zuko was flipping them and Katara was giggling as he hovered above her on his forearms. A small smile settled on her face as her blue eyes sparkled in the new light of day. He ran his knuckles over her curls as they fanned out around her head. Slowly he had fallen in love with the small repeating motion. He found it nearly as comforting as she did.

"I love you, Katara." His face had fallen to where his lips tickled hers when the words left his mouth. Her lips puckered so that a short kiss was placed on his chapped mouth before her whispers glided across his mouth as well.

"I love you, Zuko." Zuko's weight settled comfortably against her body as he leaned all the way into her kiss.

"If you don't get off my sister, I'm going to pretend like you're one of the zombies, just so I don't feel guilty when I hack your head from your shoulders." Screams emitted, chaos ensued, and two pairs of matching blue eyes met for the first time in months.

"_Sokka?_"

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><p><strong>AN: Drop a review if you still like me, or if you just don't like me. Tell me how you feel!**


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